1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns materials for the immobilization of biologically active compounds such as enzymes, coenzymes, antigens, antibodies and lecithin, that is, substances with a protein and.or a carbohydrate structure. The materials of the invention may be used in procedures requiring a solid phase form of the active compound such as a matrix bound enzyme and in affinity chromatography.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A protein reactive membrane is described in German DE-OS No. 25,41,308 wherein an aliphatic compound with a reactive group is partially absorbed on a hydrophobic substrate. The aliphatic compound with a reactive group is represented by n-decanol, n-hexanol, n-decanoic acid and similar compounds with labile hydrogens. It is a disadvantage that the alphatic compound must be reacted with a reactive protein compound (for example, the carcinogen epichlorohydrin) to provide a linkage with the protein. Furthermore, the reactive groups of the protein which do not take part in the linkage must be converted or neutralized in order to block further reactions. A particular disadvantage is in that the linkage of the protein onto the matrix occurs only through one functional group. This is detrimental to the biological activity of the immobilized compound. For example, the catalytically active part of an enzyme molecule can be bound to the matrix in such a way that there is steric hindrance inhibiting the enzyme. Furthermore, activity reducing conformation changes in the compound molecule occur due to the unitary length of the "spacers" and their linkage to various molecule segments.
With this invention substrates or carrier materials are provided with which the aforementioned activation and blocking steps can be eliminated and on which the biologically active substances can be bound in a physiological manner without a pronounced reduction of their biological activity.